'The Office' falls to ratings low against 'Big Bang' repeat

On the heels of reports that NBC is considering a creative restart on The Office, comes last night’s ratings: The comedy veteran fell to a series low while facing a repeat of CBS’ Big Bang Theory in the 9 p.m. hour.

What’s interesting is CBS trying out Big Bang in this slot for the first time on a non-holiday (and a 2 Broke Girls repeat at 9:30 p.m.). After CBS launched its 8 p.m. comedy hour beachhead on Thursdays, many wondered if it was Phase 1 in a master plan to have a two-hour comedy block on TV’s most lucrative night for advertising.

If Thursday is any indication, there’s potential should CBS want to shake things up in the fall: The Big Bang repeat (10.3 million viewers, 3.0 adult demo rating) won its time slot, beating fellow comedy The Office (4.4 million, 2.1), which fell 13 percent from its last original four weeks ago. The Big Bang 9 p.m. repeat also performed stronger than its 8 p.m. repeat (2.8 in the demo), which you would expect given the higher audience levels in the hour. CBS’ repeat of 2 Broke Girls (7.3 million, 2.1) also beat the finale of NBC’s Up All Night (3.2 million, 1.5).

Another point of interest last night: Week 2 of ABC’s Scandal (7.5 million, 2.1) went up slightly in the ratings, though with Grey’s Anatomy (8.8 million, 2.9) higher and slightly overrunning into 10 p.m., it’s too soon to say if this means the audience is a real sign of an uptrend. Missing (1.4) dropped a tenth.

Oh, and lest I forget, there was also last night’s highest-rated show: Fox’s American Idol (15.3 million, 4.2) climbed 8 percent to win the night. Touch (8.2 million, 2.3) was steady.